Goa Congress pushes for disqualification of Kamat, Lobo despite return of MLAs

The Congress in Goa on Tuesday went ahead with the disqualification petition filed against ‘rebel leaders’ Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo despite the legislators claiming that they were still with the party.

The Congress accused former chief minister Kamat and former Opposition leader Lobo of “conspiring” with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to weaken the Congress after five out of 11 Congress MLAs, led by the duo, skipped a party meeting on Sunday.

At a preliminary hearing of the disqualification petition before the Speaker on Tuesday, the Congress argued that by their actions Kamat and Lobo had voluntarily given up membership of the party and deserved to be disqualified.

“We have said that by their conduct they have voluntarily given up their membership of their party and therefore this disqualification (petition). We have requested that notices be issued to the other side and the proceedings be taken forward,” Adv Abhjijit Gosavi, representing the Congress, told reporters.

“We have said that by their conduct they have voluntarily given up the membership of the political parties. We say this because there are many judgements of the Supreme Court which say what constitutes voluntarily giving up membership. Voluntarily giving up membership doesn’t only mean that they have resigned it also means that by their conduct they have demonstrated that they have given up the membership of their political party that also comes within the meaning of voluntarily giving up membership,” he added.

The Congress cited a case in Karnataka where members of a political party were disqualified by the Speaker after they refused to attend a meeting of the Legislature Party, a ruling that was upheld by the Supreme Court.

“In this case, the Congress president had called for a meeting of the CLP (Congress Legislature Party). They didn’t attend the CLP. There is a similar case in Karnataka when their members called for the CLP and their members didn’t attend, the Speaker disqualified them. The matter went up to the Supreme Court and the SC upheld the order of the speaker saying that if this was the conduct of the member, then they have incurred disqualification. We have shown that judgement to the Speaker and showed him that this is clearly a precedent on identical facts,” Adv Gosavi said.

Kamat, Lobo, his wife Delilah and two other MLAs didn’t report to the Congress headquarters on Sunday night despite the party having summoned them for a briefing.

After attempting to reach out to them and to secure their presence, the Congress leadership led by All India Congress Committee (AICC) desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao declared that Kamat and Lobo were colluding with the BJP and action would be taken against them.

Both Lobo and Kamat later denied that they were seeking to break away from the party.

Lobo and the other three ‘rebel’ MLAs turned up at the Congress headquarters for a meeting on Monday night that was also attended by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Wasnik. Lobo reiterated that he was “strongly with the Congress”. Kamat, who claimed he is “retired hurt”, did not attend the meeting.